Via @CNET, Microsoft is forging ahead with a new home-automation software operating system that's currently being tested in a handful of real homes.

More than a decade in the making, Microsoft researchers have now published a white paper, "An Operating System for the Home", about their work on a HomeOS. Says CNET, "The HomeOS is a 'PC-like abstraction' for in-home devices, like lights, TVs, surveillance cameras, gaming consoles, routers, printers, PCs, mobile phones and more. These devices appear to the HomeOS user as peripherals connected to a single PC." More at CNET and Microsoft Research.